I'm guessing the mid west somewhere? Such an incredibly harsh climate compared to the UK! Absolutely no need to have a winter car here.

Yeah, no worries.

The change is meaningful between the 70s and today, and it's not just about population increases. If anything, population increases typically make adoption of non-car options easier and more attractive in a country, not less, because greater densities support more transit more readily and make driving more congested and painful. But policy is more important, and policies in the US have pushed cars above other options. And as you point out, cars are potent emotional and cultural symbols. What's striking is how different it can be elsewhere. For me in Manchester in the UK, a car had that same meaning as it did for you when I turned 17 and could start driving. But my kids grew up in London where transit is excellent and they already felt they had tons of freedom to move around the city from the age of 11, jumping on buses and tubes. My daughter is 17 and hasn't bothered to learn to drive because it just doesn't matter that much to her.

The US is truly more car dependent than 50 year ago: that's why vehicle miles per person have nearly doubled (from about 5k per year to about 10k), why you've moved from about 1.2 cars per household to 2+ on average, and commute distances are up from about 8 miles then to about 15 today.

These changes happen over many years, so it can be difficult to spot. But they're very real

Their existence is insane. The problem is, they go with nationalism like bread and butter.

We regulate certain things more or less out of existence because they're dangerous. Certain types of products which people can't or won't make themselves can be prohibited from sale, for example. I generally am in favor of legalizing things and enforcing laws against fraud, so that people get honest information about consequences, but I also like for people to be protected from other people.

Tobacco products are my favorite example because they affect people who aren't even using them. We allow them to persist only because of a profitable and highly taxable industry, not because of any notions about freedom. Freedom would be to permit you to grow your own instead of enabling the cancer stick industry, and let all the smokers move to farms in the south.

I feel like they are asking for the sun. Are you new to negotiations?

I also feel like all of this could have been avoided by just not doing what we've been doing. For decades.

Here's a fun fact, there's a clearing house colloquially known as the "federal hub" where your name, DOB, SSN, and ID numbers can be rubbed together and your citizenship verified in seconds if you're well-documented. It takes longer to verify noncitizen status, but citizenship is stupidly easy to verify once identity has been verified, and registered noncitizens are required to carry their citizenship documents anyway... authorization to work, legal permanent resident card, passport, etc etc. Those are also all photo ID.

The passport is the gold star of verification, as it verifies both citizenship and identity anywhere in the US.

Addictive products are just good products! Have a cigar.

It's more that they have seen they can count on protectionism. Which ironically they also hate because it subjects them to dealers

Indeed. Here in California we are the poster children for this, because we have a 55 mph speed limit while towing which is NEVER enforced. We have a requirement that headlights be aimed correctly, same. We have a law saying that if there are five or more people behind you, you must pull over at the first safe opportunity to let them pass, same. Fender flares must project as far as tires, same. (Anyone who's ever had a rock break their windshield understands.)

CHP cares specifically and only about revenue generation, so they do nothing to improve safety except go after speeders. That's not nothing, but it's not enough.

If they weren't they wouldn't buy their shit, so they KNOW they're stupid

First, Iran has never been close to having a weapon

Second, if they do want one, it's because their primary enemies have one, and one of them is the only country to ever nuke another country

Or the gravel pit

The FCC isn't making these decisions. They are made by the DoD and the DHS, per the initial announcement.

Manual windows don't reduce cost much unless you're going to put them on a lot of vehicles, otherwise it's just more parts you need to design and stock, meanwhile window motors are shared between multiple vehicles. Statistically nobody would rather have manual windows on a vehicle which costs even $40k so it might actually increase costs to offer them.